DOJ Releases FOIA Guidelines Favoring Disclosure and Transparency

The Department of Justice has released a new set of Freedom of Information Act (”FOIA”) guidelines that direct all executive branch departments (DHS and USCIS including) to apply a presumption of openness when administering FOIA.

The new FOIA guidelines address both application of the presumption of disclosure and the effective administration of the FOIA across the entire government. As  to the presumption of disclosure, the Attorney General directs agencies not to withhold records simply because they can technically do so. In his memo, the Attorney General encourages agencies to make discretionary disclosures of records and to release records in part whenever they cannot be released in full.

We are hopeful that this memo and the new FOIA guidelines will allow faster and more efficient processing of FOIA requests submitted to USCIS for production of case files.